Manufacture of india-rubber and gutta-percha cloth



ihvrrn STATES ATENT rrrcn.

CHARLES A. EVANS, OF METHUEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 238,496, dated March 8, 1881.

Application filed February 5, 1881. (Specimens) To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. EVANS, of Methuen, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in the Man ufactnre ofIndia-Rubber and Gotta- Percha Cloth, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to an improvement on the manufacture of goods surfaced with indiarubber and gutta-percha compounds, a patent for which was granted me April 16, 1878, No. 202,427, and also another patent, application for which is now pending. Patents for machinery for making these goods were granted to James Tregurtha May 11,1880, Nos. 227,395 and 227,396, and August 31, 1880, No. 231,692. The first patent referred to related to a compound for surfacing, a manner of using the compound, and a result produced from the compound and method where bright-colored cloths were to be produced. The granted application related to a compound and result which should be oil-proof and bright colored.

My present invention relates, principally, .to the manufacture of black cloth, but two manipulations in it are desirable for use in cloths of other colors.

To prepare the surfacing compound I take about two hundred pounds of gutta-percha and dissolve it in a hundred gallons ofnaphtha at a temperature moderately warm to the hand, and I thereuponincorporate with the dissolved gutta-percha lamp-black and bone-black in about the proportion of three ounces of lam p-black and one ounce of bone-black to a gallon of the dissolved gutta-percha. In addition to this I make a menstruum of india-rubber dissolved in naphtha in about the same proportions as gutta-pcrcha, and mix with it similar quantities of lamp-black and bone-black. Any other suitable solvent maybe used; but naphtha has this advantage, that it evaporates completely and readily, and thus does not leave a disagreeable odor entangled in the fabric, as some other solvents do. Suitable mechanisms for dissolving and tritnrating these coating compounds are shown in Tregurthas patents of May 11, 1880. These compounds so prepared are now spread in repeated thin layers upon the surface of close-textured cloth, as described in my patent of April 16, 1878.

Hereinafter in this specification the first above-mentioned composition will be called the gutta-peroha compound and the second abovementioned composition the india-rubber compound. They may be used alternately, the gutta-percha compound forming the cloth side and surface coats and the india-rubber compound some or all of the intermediate coats.

But I usually prefer to make two mixtures of these compounds, as follows: The first would consist of the india-rubber compound with about a quarter as much of the gutta-percha compound added, and this I will call the goat body. The second would consist of the gottapercha compound with about a quarter as much of the iudia-rubber compound added, and this I will call the stay-body. These proportions may be somewhat varied without departing from the substance of the invention.

In order to produce the very best imitation of goat-skin or pebbled leather the layers must be laid peculiarly. Two or more lower layers may be of gutta-perchacompound, or of staybody; but I prefer to make them, from motives of economy and ease of working, of goatbody. Having laid these, I pebble the surface last laid. Two coats are enough for light goods, but more may be laid, if desired, before pebbling. Over this pebbled surface I apply a coat of the gutta-percha compound, or of the goat-body or stay-body; but I prefer, from motives of economy, ease of work, and desirable result, to use for this coat stay-body. And I finally varnish with a thin coating of shellacvarnish, usually tinted, as the last coat. The coloring-matter of this varnish would be lampblack, and in case a tinge of another color was desired to get the proper shade of black, this tinge would be given by aniline of the proper color.

In case I want a product like the leather usually used for stay-leather, which is differ ently finished from goat-skin, I use for all the boats either gutta-percha compound or staybody, and apply two coats of tinted shellacvarnish over the last layer of compound or body, pebbling 011 the first coat of shellac before applying the other. I omit the last coat of shellac if I desire a dead finish.

The method described of making the cloth with a coat of compound or body containing gutta-percha over a pebbled surface is useful in making imitation morocco of other colors than black; but in such case the coating over the pebbled surface would be colored with fat aniline, substantially as described in my allowed application above referred to.

The shellac-varnish used should be toughened and rendered less brittle by the addition of glycerine to an amount of not more than a third,and it should be thinner than commonly used for shellac finish on wood.

The improvements here shown over previous fabrics are, that the surfacing compound or body contains dissolved gutta-percha, lampblack, and bone-black in every layer, which last material is substantially a porous black mineral matter. This surface coating is applied in layers, and one of these layers is pebbled, and afterward covered by another layer of the compound or body to produce a goat finish. To produce a stay finish a surface coat of tinted shellac is applied and pebbled, which, if to be dead, is left alone; ifto be bright,

is to be again varnished.

In case shellac is used it is toughened by addition of glycerine.

I therefore claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A close-textured fabric surface-coated with dissolved gutta-percha, lamp-black, and bone-black, substantially as described.

2. In a rubber or gutta-percha cloth, a pebbled interior layer of gutta-percha or indiarubber compound, covered with another layer of such compound not pebbled, substantially as described.

3. A rubber or gutta-percha cloth having a pebbled surface-coat of tinted shellac, substantially as described.

4:. A rubber or gutta-percha cloth surfacefinished with a shellac varnish containing glycerine, substantially as described.

CHAS. A. EVANS.

Witnesses:

F. F. RAYMOND, 2d, THos. WM. CLARKE. 

